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EB Patient Awareness Week will kick off in less than three weeks. Once again, EB Resource will be launching its annual Tweet-a-Thon to raise funds for DebRA of America. (More info will be coming to you soon about this fun event!)

This time of year is a great opportunity to educate neighbors, colleagues at work, members of your church, local teachers and school staff, your child’s classmates and their families, and others in the community about epidermolysis bullosa – what it is, what it means for patients and their loved ones and what they can do on a daily basis to support these families. Your fundraiser is a chance for you to engage others on a grander scope to get behind efforts to create more support resources for these families and develop better treatments, and ideally, a cure.

So what have you done so far to get your fundraiser underway? Don’t get too nervous but the clock is ticking. There’s still time to get everything in order for a successful fundraiser, but don’t leave out any of these important aspects.

· Community promotion. Meet up with local business owners and ask them to help spread the word about your upcoming event, whether it’s including a flyer in high traffic areas at their establishment or telling customers verbally about the event.

· Vendor support. Appeal to local businesses to provide supplies wherever needed to get added exposure for their business while helping out a worthy cause. You should consider especially reaching out to newer businesses in the area that are still trying to gain footing and awareness in the community. Find out if there are ways they can assist with available food and drink, raffle gift items, silent auction prizes, giveaways, special services available onsite or anything else that can help drive traffic and interest for your event.

· Neighborhood communicators. Reach out directly to those in leadership roles at local schools and community associations, including PTA leaders, school principals, neighborhood association leaders, the mayor’s office, city council members and others. By telling some of the more involved and vocal people in the community about your upcoming event, you’ll have greater odds that folks will be talking about it and spreading the word. Expand this word of mouth by letting others “in the know” do some of that talking for you!

· Volunteer support. Recruit any friends, family and neighbors to help you on the big day. People planning their first fundraisers often underestimate the amount of time, effort and preparation to pull off the big event. The more hands involved, the more you can get done; it’s as simple as that. You also may want to contact local high schools about possibly facilitating community service credit for young students looking to do some volunteering. If they can gain credit for their service and you gain much-needed help to set-up or manage the fundraiser, it could be a win-win!

· Media attention. Invite media outlets of all formats and sizes to share news with readers beforehand, take part as a media sponsor, or simply attend and report the event. Be sure to invite more than local affiliates of major TV networks and metropolitan newspapers. You will benefit by including smaller, more targeted outlets, such as neighborhood news publications and community radio stations that are always looking for events and fundraisers to promote in the area.

If you are in the midst of planning your fundraiser, good luck to you. And don’t forget to check out these additional sources for assistance. DebRA offers some valuable advice about planning a local DebRA event. And we featured a helpful checklist last year that it is just as pertinent today. Best wishes for a successful event … and don’t forget to send us the details for your upcoming fundraiser so we can spread the word here in our own community. Email leslie.rader@hollisterwoundcare.com all of the event information. Thanks!